Dear Friends and Partners,
I want to provide you with an update of Wright County
Community Action’s Care and Nutrition Support for seniors (60+) during the
COVID-19 Crisis. Wright County Community Action (WCCA) has a support line
for seniors; please call (320) 963-6500 Ext. 274.
For those seniors who access this support line, we have a bank of staff trained
to answer calls and return calls to help address many of the challenges seniors
are facing during this time. We want to help with their challenges,
including navigating this situation with grocery access education, grocery delivery,
senior mobile food shelf needs, frozen meal support, prescription access, and
other needs arising .
Catholic Charities, partially funded by Central MN Council
on Aging has played a critical role so far in their support of frozen meals,
providing a needed soft bridge for seniors to navigate this circumstance.
Based on my communications with Catholic Charities and CMCOA, after this month
their resources to Wright County will be significantly reduced. We are
having to modify our sourcing regarding frozen meal support. While there
is an overwhelming demand in Wright County, Catholic Charities expects to
continue local support but will not be able to have the reach and capacity to
serve the whole county.
To supplement nutrition needs, WCCA already has 15,000
individually packaged breakfast products on the freezer warehouse floor at
J&B Group.
We are working feverishly to procure the food necessary to
support meal production. We are well into the application process with 2nd
Harvest for raw food support for our meal production and are confident of their
support of this project. Additionally, support from regional and
international bulk food suppliers has come through already with new
opportunities on the horizon. Furthermore, we hope to resource from local
farmers as those opportunities arise. Yes, we will need to purchase food from a
local food service to round out our meals, and the account has already been
established. Team Minnesota has stepped up to support our effort in tremendous
ways. Very gracious regional and local suppliers seem willing to
play a part.
Another wonderful effort is being made by our local United
Way teams. Wright County Area United Way and Delano Loretto United Way
have already stepped up and are supporting this need with their innovation and
financial support. Please support these agencies with your financial
support. They will be playing a critical role in how we sustain these
services going forward across the entire county.
Area food shelves are also offering support. The
Wright County Food Shelf at Waverly with the gracious support of many local
municipalities, Lions organizations (Waverly, Montrose, Howard Lake and Maple
Lake), and the Citizen’s State Bank of Waverly have made possible this walk-in
freezer, installed last week at the Waverly Food Shelf.
While I am not aware of who is responsible, I also know that
a new walk-in freezer was recently installed at the Annandale Food Shelf.
The Annandale Food Shelf is willing to leverage their freezer in partnership on
this project. A freezer has also been installed at the Alleluia Lutheran Church Business office to help support
this effort going forward in the St. Michael, Albertville, and Otsego
area. An additional walk-in freezer resource is likely to be installed at
another area food shelf very soon.
I also must mention the freezers
owned by Buffalo Crossing LLC which is getting daily use and has had an early
and critical impact in support of this project getting off the ground. A
big thank you to Joel Nystrom for his support. Thanks everyone for supporting
this community wide effort to enhance the care and nutrition of our seniors
during this time.
With delivery support from Trailblazer Transit and the
special community volunteers willing to ride along, as well as the courageous
volunteers at the Delano Senior Center, we are currently delivering County wide
about 500 meals per day. This number continues to move up and down as new
seniors call to ask for this nutrition support and others are able to achieve
grocery delivery more effectively to their homes.
Seniors needing grocery delivery support, Senior (60+)
mobile food shelf, or Frozen Meal support (60+) can call (320) 963-6500 Ext 274.
Thank you everyone,
Jay Weatherford
Executive Director of WCCA
Information for Wright County senior support
services at Wright County Community Action:
https://www.wccaweb.com/Home/Index
(click current programs)
or
or
call:
- (320) 963-6500 Ext 274 – Aging
Program Manager - Eric Nagel
- (320) 963-6500 Ext 241 – Dispatch
- 1-800-333-2433 – Senior LinkAge Line
To volunteer:
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